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Details

Unique masterpieces produced by the hands of craftsmen

Quality, refinement and tradition. Le Luth Doré® lutes, early guitars and mandolins are designed in Paris by experienced european luthiers, and handcrafted in our high quality new China-based manufacturing facility, by today’s top luthiers in the country.

LLD® instruments represent the culmination of over 40 years of music instruments manufacturing by our European and Chinese luthiers and 20 years of music expertise by world famous lutenist Miguel Serdoura.

The tone, resonance, and beauty of fine instruments are all dependent upon the wood from which they are made. The wood used in the construction of LLD® lutes, early guitars and mandolines is carefully chosen and aged to guarantee the highest quality.

Each LLD® instrument is a work of art that begins with the selection of the finest materials and is brought to perfection with great passion.

With select solid woods and impeccable workmanship, LLD® instruments will satisfy anyone looking for a truly superior sound and an unique experience with exquisite early music instruments.

All LLD® instruments are sold with modern, exclusive and refined fiberglass hard case, featuring a convenient climatic system to ensure your instrument great protection against travel, storage and climate changes.

Characteristics

Wood and color characteristics

The LLD® Hagen 13c Baroque lute bowl is made with ribbon striped sapelli, a dense tone-wood with a very distinctive striped grain featuring a very attractive ribbon figure that runs parallel to the grain. Ribbon striped sapelli is a quite hard wood but still easy to carve.

The very dark reddish brown natural color of our ribbon striped sapelli wood, covered by a thin coat of transparent oil varnish, makes our LLD® lutes look very similar to the historical lutes of famous 16th century lute maker Laux Mahler. Indeed, he was famous for his very dark reddish brown oil varnish that until today no luthier has been able to reproduce. We believe that our choice of ribbon striped sapelli is aesthetically the closest we can get to the varnish color of Laux Mahler lutes.

Sound characteristics

It has subtle yet complex overtones, overall warm sounding tone, strong mid-range and deep full bass. Both flamed maple and ribbon striped sapelli tend to be warm-bright, but sapelli would have a bit brighter treble and deeper bass than maple.

The sound of ribbon striped sapelli exhibits a powerful midrange, great punch, warm and dense trebles, while retaining a very good level of warmth in the lower ends and lower mids. In comparison, flamed maple is a tonewood that improves in richness and complexity over time with playing.

Ribbon striped sapelli is a fast growing and highly sustainable exotic wood which is protected from over harvesting making it a fabulous choice for the environmentally aware.

Ribbon striped sapelli or flamed maple?

Ribbon striped sapelli is an harder wood then flamed maple. Both tend to be direct, bright and warm at the same time, but ribbon striped sapelli exhibits warmer treble presence and deeper basses than flamed maple – that will be the main sound difference among this two woods.

Flamed maple as a very direct but warm sound, and has fewer overtones or complexity then ribbon striped sapelli. What you hear initially with flamed maple, is what you get.

The sound the lute projects at the attack is still the same sound you will hear as the note decays. Flamed maple is a wood that has to sampled with age to be fully appreciated.

Ribbon striped sapelli sound will be a little less direct than maple, with more overtones, and adds a bit more complexity to the sound of the lute overall.

The soundboard

Spruce is the most common tone wood used for the soundboard of the European lute family instruments. LLD® uses only high grade and excellent quality solid spruce soundboards on the construction of its lutes.

The top, or soundboard, as the name suggests, bears great influence on the way a lute sounds, though the back also is a key component. The top seems to affect the lute's responsiveness, its sustain and even some of its overtone coloration and quality of each note’s fundamental tone. Taking in consideration the differences of the flamed maple wood (which develops more the fundamentals of the sound) and the ribbon striped sapelli (which develops more the overtones) we have chose two different sorts of spruce in order to equilibrate those specificities.

The LLD® high grade wide grain spruce used with the ribbon striped sapelli lutes is a high grade well-rounded tonewood, with less stiffness and greater lightness. It translates to stronger overtones and weaker fundamentals.

Instrument settings

All our LLD® lutes are carefully inspected in Paris before shipment to the customer by a professional, conservatory-trained lutenist and adjusted as necessary by a luthier in Paris specializing in making, restoring and repairing historical and modern professional quality lutes.

Our instruments are precisely designed and then adjusted to assure proper scooping of the top and height of the nut and the bridge to provide optimal action of the strings.

• Top in high grade wide grain solid spruce, finished and slightly varnished• Bowl in ribbon striped sapelli, finished and oil varnished in transparent color• Spacers in ebony• Neck, bridge and pegbox in maple, finished and varnished in black• Pegs in ebony• Fingerboard and soundboard frets in ebony

1 Reviews For "LLD ® Hagen 13c Baroque lute"

Captivated by this instrument

by Yoichi Nozoe on 01 Thu,2019

Price

Quality

Value

Service

I would just like to thank you very much for preparing and sending the Lute.

The Hagen Baroque lute I have ordered has arrived in excellent condition in mid-December (although the most exterior cardboard box was dented at few places!) . The shape, color, sound, touch, design, everything is beautiful, and after a few weeks of trying to get use to the Lute, I am still captivated by the instrument.

As a beginner lute player, I have a long way to go, but I will definitely treasure this lute for years to come!